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In warm, tropical oceans, like that shown in (A), large numbers of corals and other marine animals and plants make skeletons out of calcite and other carbonate minerals. These skeletons and carbonate mud make a rock called limestone like the one shown in (B) from San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. This limestone was a coral reef living under a shallow sea about 120,000 years ago.

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TES XXVI, 3 fall 2010
The Fall 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, focuses on rocks and minerals, including articles on minerals and mining, the use of minerals in society, and rare earth minerals, and includes 3 posters!

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Each type of mineral is made of a unique group of elements that are arranged in a unique pattern. However, to identify minerals you don’t need to look at the elements with sophisticated chemical tests....more

Quartz is the second most common mineral in Earth’s crust. It is a member of the quartz group, which includes less common minerals such as opal, crystobalite, and coesite. Silica (Si) and Oxygen (O) are...more

Mica minerals make some rocks sparkle! They are often found in igneous rocks such as granite and metamorphic rocks such as schist. They sparkle because light is reflected on their flat surfaces, which...more

Feldspar is the most common mineral in the Earth’s crust, so you are very likely to find it in the rocks you collect! It is found it all of the three rock types, but is most common in intrusive igneous...more

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So far, over 2000 minerals have been found, and every year new ones are discovered. This is a pretty overwhelming number of different types of minerals, however, you don't need to know them all to be...more

Minerals occur naturally on rocky planets and form the building blocks of rocks. They are non-living, solid, and, like all matter, are made of atoms of elements. There are many different types of minerals...more